A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

68 constant j. mews
have copied at least 50 manuscripts for the monks of Wessobrun. Herluca
may not have been as unlettered as Paul of Bernried claimed. While
Herluca never achieved the fame of Hildegard of Bingen, her example
reminds us that it was not unknown for women in the early 12th century
to speak out from the authority of visionary experience. For Herluca, the
meaning of a vision was revealed to her by Bishop Wicterp. For Hildegard,
it was the Living Light which revealed to her the meaning of the images
which came into her mind.
A narrative of particular value for illuminating the distinct values of
reformed monasticism in Germany is the chronicle, written sometime
between 1134 and 1156, of the abbey of Petershausen, reformed by monks
from Hirsau in 1083.39 Its chronicler reports that under William’s direction,
Hirsau became an important place of refuge, not just for monks, but also
for clerics and laypeople of every rank who were critical of the ecclesiastical
policies promoted by Henry IV.40 In his opening preface, the Petershausen
chronicler reviews the role of the diffferent orders within the Church, and
consciously defends against potential criticism the practice of nuns dwelling
alongside monks as “not despicable, but rather praiseworthy, so that
both sexes, while separated from each other, might be saved in one place.”41
Not all admirers of William of Hirsau shared these ideas. Ulrich of Zell, a
monk of St Emmeram who spent many years at Cluny, praised William of
Hirsau for keeping women at a distanc.e from a male community.42 Ulrich
iterum ipsius Herluce vice versa transmisse, quibus se mutuis recreando se confortantes.”
For the books copied by Diemut at Wessobrun, see Paul Ruf, ed., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge
Deutschlands und der Schweiz, Bistum Augsburg 3.1 (Munich, 1932), pp. 178–83.
39 The Latin text of the Petershausen chronicle is printed with a German translation by
Otto Feger, ed., Die Chronik des Klosters Petershausen, Schwäbische Chroniken der Stauferzeit
3 (Lindau, 1956).
40 Casus Monasterii Petrishusensis 2.48, eds. Heinrich Friedrich Otto Abel and Ludwig
Weiland, MGH SS 20:648: “De Hirsaugia. Ea tempestate spiritalis disciplinae ardor quam
maxime fervebat apud monasterium quod dicitur Hirsaugia, et multi tam nobilium quam
ignobilium clericorum et laicorum, set et monachorum de aliis locis illuc confluebant et
de procella anathematis, quae tunc navim aecclesiae vehementer impingebat, quasi de
maximo naufragio emergentes, illic quasi ad portum confugiebant et quietem optatae salutis
se invenisse emergentes, illic quasi ad portum confugiebant et quietem optate salutis se
invenisse gaudebant.”
41 Casus Monasterii Petrishusensis Pref. 9, MGH SS 20:625: “De sanctimonialibus. Ubi
hoc quoque notandum, quod devote mulieres pariter cum sanctis discipulis Deo militabant,
et ideo hoc exemplo non est vituperabile, set magis laudabile, si sanctimoniales
feminae in servorum Dei monasteriis recipiantur, ut uterque sexus, ab invicem tamen
sequestratus, uno in loco salvetur.”
42 PL 149:637B–C. Elsanne Gilomen-Schenkel, “Engelberg, Interlaken und andere autonome
Doppelklöster im Südwesten des Reiches (11.–13. Jahrhundert). Zur Quellenproblematik
und zur historiographischen Tradition,” in Doppelklöster und andere Formen der